Coming up next on NewsDepth... We tour our local nature centers.

We learn about how the government funds the Cleveland Metroparks, What are endangered species, and how can we protect them.

And a zoo veterinarian answers your questions about their job.

NewsDepth is now.

Hello, and welcome to NewsDepth.

I'm your host, Gabriel Kramer.

As you can see, this is not NewsDepth headquarters.

Instead, I'm at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to celebrate Earth Day.

Earth day took place on April 22nd.

It's a day dedicated to raising awareness of environmental issues that are planet is facing.

The first Earth Day was held in 1970.

Since then, it has become a global event that is celebrated by millions of people in more than 190 countries around the world.

For me, nothing beats a nice park to take in the nature.

And Cleveland has plenty of good ones.

The Cleveland Metroparks offer the residents of Northeast Ohio beautiful parks right in our backyards.

We recently visited the North Chagrin Nature Center to learn how they are helping protect our planet and its amazing creatures.

My name is Jeff Riebe.

I'm a naturalist with Cleveland Metroparks.

I give people, interactions and contact with nature.

We try to bring people out into the woods, take them on hikes, bring nature to the people.

So a nature center is a place where people can come and explore and learn about the wild spaces in their area.

So it's kind of like a special place where people can come and just enjoy the park.

This is Mars, and Mars is an eastern screech owl.

He's a great teacher and a great way to sort of introduce people to the mystery and beauty of owls.

So we have, we have several live owls.

We have some barn owls, We have a turkey vulture.

We have some flying squirrels and, a bat.

And we also have some turtles and native fish We encourage you to come to the North Chagrin Nature Center with Cleveland Metroparks to explore.

Check out our trails.

We have a lot of really amazing places to visit here at North Chagrin.

So I hope you can come and and visit us very soon.

Thank you Jeff.

To watch all of the full Nature Center tours, visit newsdepth.org Did you know that the Cleveland Zoo is managed by the Metroparks?

That's right.

The Metroparks work hard to ensure we have preserved nature in Cleveland, as well as access to some of the cool animals like these guys over here.

These are giraffes.

Some species of giraffes, including these Masai giraffes, are endangered, with some species even being classified as critically endangered.

endangered means the species is on the verge of extinction from Earth.

There are a lot of other species that are endangered, like rhinos, elephants and gorillas.

The zoo aims to protect all of these animals and keep them safe.

We sat down with Doctor Kristen Lukas of the Cleveland Zoo to talk about the research behind caring for these endangered animals.

My name is Kristen Lukas.

I'm the director of conservation and science here at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

So when you come to the zoo and you see the animals that are here, hopefully you fall in love with them just as much as we love them.

But you also hopefully will think a little bit about what their counterparts are doing in the wild looking at orangutans and you think, wow, they live in forests all the way on the other side of the world.

So conservation is the work that we do to help connect what's happening here at the zoo to what's happening out in nature.

We have really strong partners that we've been working with for a really long time that are out there in the field every day, helping to protect the species from the threats that are still out there.

That's then somewhere where we can help step in and say, listen, tell us what you need, and we'll help you So we talk about animals or populations, species being endangered or threatened when there's really not a lot of them left in the wild, or if there's a lot of threats to their continued survival.

So some of those threats could be just that.

There's not a lot of room left for them on the planet as human populations grow and grow.

Sometimes there's less and less space for wildlife populations to thrive.

So if their numbers go down, sometimes it could be very active threats.

It could be something with the changing conditions of the climate.

Sometimes it could be forests are being cut down or water is being polluted.

So scientists come together and they evaluate the species or the population on a lot of different factors and make a decision about whether or not they are endangered and if so, how endangered they might be, and then they'll get a classification.

And then we kind of know where to prioritize a lot of our conservation work.

Thank you, Kristen.

The Cleveland Zoo is not the only place protecting endangered species.

At the Rocky River Nature Center.

They honor the history of extinct creatures while protecting the spotted turtle, a state threatened endangered species.

Let's toss it over to Lys Ursem from the Rocky River Nature Center to learn more about what they do.

Hi, my name is Lys Ursem.

I'm a naturalist with Cleveland Metroparks and I work out of Rocky River Nature Center.

Two of our newest additions are our spotted turtles.

They are brothers and they were brought to us with a partnership between the Akron Zoo and our Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

They are incredibly fun turtles with some big personalities.

They like to live in areas like bogs and swamps.

Unfortunately, because they do love those incredibly wet areas.

Those areas are also the ones that are starting to become points of concern.

And as we are starting to see more habitat loss for these turtles, we are starting to see their population decrease as well.

Spotted turtles are endangered in the US and here specifically in Ohio, they are considered threatened, meaning that in the next few years, without any intervention, they could become endangered here in our state too.

Here, the biggest way that we can help protect these turtles is through education.

So we educate people on why their populations are decreasing, why we shouldn't be collecting them from outside as pets, and of course, all of the beautiful adaptations that they have that do make them so desirable.

Thank you Lys.

Now, the Metroparks would not be able to do this without help from the government.

From funding to the administrative work.

Abbey Marshall has more on how the Metroparks works with local government for this week's Politics on Point.

For today's Politics on Point, I thought it'd be nice to take a stroll around the park, and luckily, the city of Cleveland has a lot of parks.

The Cleveland Metroparks is a collection of 18 reservations, nine golf courses, eight parks, and the Cleveland Zoo.

But did you know that they have an interesting connection to the state government?

The Metroparks is the oldest park district in Ohio.

It was founded on July 23rd, 1917, thanks to the idea of a young engineer named William Stinchcomb who worked as the chief engineer of the city parks department.

After years of planning, he lobbied the Ohio Legislature to amend the state constitution to allow the authorization of natural resource conservation for counties in 1913.

Lobbying means to present information to politicians to attempt to influence their opinion.

This was turned down by the Ohio Supreme Court, but instead of giving up, he went back to lobby for new legislation allowing the establishment of the Metropolitan Park District.

In 1915.

He was offered a position as a consulting engineer to the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District Board, the same board he lobbied for two years prior.

He immediately got to work hiring a landscape architectural firm, who drew up plans for a system of connecting parks.

In 1917, Stinchcomb returned to the statehouse as an officer of the Metropolitan Park District Board to propose a bill authorizing the board to impose a tax to fund the property acquisition.

From there, the Metroparks grew into what they are today.

Now, the government still plays a big role in the Metroparks organization.

The parks are recognized as a separate political subdivision of the state of Ohio.

The Cleveland Metroparks are funded from a levy or a tax that was passed by local voters to support the expansion and maintenance of parks and green spaces in the region.

The Metroparks are also governed by a three member board of Park Commissioners, who oversee their operations and ensure all parks are well maintained and accessible to the community.

The Cleveland Division of Police also has a special department called the Cleveland Metroparks Police, who work to ensure the safety of the park's lands.

The Metroparks continue to provide nature experiences to residents of all ages with a little help from the government.

It's funny that all the work done indoors is what's allowing me to take a sunny break outdoors.

Thank you, Abbey.

On with the next stop of our zoo tour.

We're now at the Red sea tank to talk about the importance of environmental awareness.

Just like you and me.

The earth needs to be taken care of.

Unfortunately, care for the earth has been at the back of the mind for some, causing the Earth's climate to begin changing rapidly.

Scientists are concerned about these changes to the climate and temperatures.

Climate change impacts every part of our lives.

The weather, our wildlife, our society, and even the water we drink.

Let's turn the faucet on to water.

Water is a natural resource that is in high demand, meaning it is very important to keep it clean.

To support our ecosystem, The watershed center in Parma functions much like the other nature centers we visited today, but it specifically focuses on how to manage water in human environments.

On our next stop, we'll learn how they do this, as well as how water conservation and protection helps the wetland ecosystems.

My name is Mayim Hamblin, I'm a naturalist here at the Cleveland Metroparks at the Watershed Stewardship Center.

There are multiple different types of wetlands that we have here, including bogs, fens, marshes, vernal pools.

And they are an area of land that stays wet most of the year.

Wetlands are super important to our ecosystem and the animals that live within them.

They help slow down water so they will help to hold on to water.

And they also house a lot of species we call bio indicators like our salamanders or frogs.

These bio indicators tell us about the health of our environment.

So this is their home.

And if we don't have their home, we don't get to learn those things about how healthy or not healthy the environment is.

Some ways you can help with our wetland environments and keeping them safe would be to use less water.

Think about how your water is running off of your back yard or front yard, and if there's any trash in it helping to pick up the trash and not pollute it in the first place, that ends up in the wetland and those animals will be affected by those things.

So using less water and helping to pick up your trash could really help in keeping the wetlands clean.

Thank you Mayim for teaching us about water and wetlands ecosystems.

Aside from being mindful of our water usage.

We can also minimize our impact on the planet by recycling.

Recycling is collecting, processing, and repurposing waste materials like plastic bottles and scrap paper to cut down on the amount of waste that goes into trash dumps.

Recycling is not just important for the earth.

It's important for the creatures on Earth.

These little guys really appreciate recycling.

Sea turtles live in the ocean when out in the wild.

And litter that is left on beaches and the water can get stuck on them, causing injury and sometimes worse outcomes for these beautiful creatures.

It's great to know how we can help protect them.

But now let's bring the power.

Electricity helps us power everything in our lives.

When you charge a Chromebook for school, when you turn on a light switch, and even when you open the fridge, all of these activities are using electricity.

Unfortunately, having our lives powered by electricity comes with a cost.

With electricity bills going up in Ohio, some residents are turning to powering their homes with solar panels.

Solar panels harness energy and power from the sun, powering homes for a lower cost to not only our wallets, but also our environment.

Let's pass it over to Hernz Laguerre Jr to learn more.

As the sun rises in the West End neighborhood, Chris Hackman's 1870 home receives its main source of power.

It's pretty neat to to think that you're using the sun to bring in this new space of energy that you're able to use.

Chris's home is fully electric, and his dependance on the electrical grid is less because of the energy his solar panels bring into his net zero home.

Net zero means that you are generating most of the energy, that your house is also consuming.

Using the solar panels makes Chris's electric bills cheaper because he doesn't rely on the electric grid as much.

But he doesn't only want to save money.

Chris also wants to save the environment other than collecting free energy from the sun.

It also doesn't emit any of the gases that cause climate change.

It's part of what we call clean energy for that reason.

Out on a horse barn in the village of Mainville in Warren County.

Catherine and Eric Estill also used energy from the sun.

They put their solar panels on the roof of their horse barn because they have trees that share the roof of their house.

For the Estills, solar panels have been... Very successful.

I've only received one electric bill a year.

Midwinter for the extra heating.

So we're quite pleased with the results.

There is the environmental aspect, but we look at the bottom line also.

Whether you're looking at the bottom line or looking to save the environment, Van Sullivan from the Cincinnati environmental organization Green Umbrella, says solar panels can help us against the most extreme conditions we may face because of climate change.

Local solar can come into play is to build community resilience.

So what does it look like to have a home or have a community solar panel, or our community solar grid, or, get a local government to invest in solar so that as we might enter experience, grid unreliability, we can actually still provide power through extreme events.

Special thanks to Hernz from CET and Cincinnati for sharing that story with us.

Teachers.

If you liked this special segment, let us know by filling out the survey at the bottom of this episode page.

We just learned so many different ways to protect our environment.

Now I want to hear from you for a write to us this week.

We'd like to know what steps can you take to protect the environment?

Students can fill out the inbox form online or send us an email with their answers to newsdepth@ideastream.org In our last episode, we learned that China is increasing their use of wind energy.

And we asked you to put on your scientists hats and research what kind of renewable energy will be best for your community.

Let's see what you had to say by opening our inbox.

A fifth grader from Kensington Intermediate School in Rocky River sees a bright future with renewable energy, This fifth grade student from Ella Canavan in Medina, that's where I went to school, researched the power of wind energy.

Hear that NewsHound?

By the way, Go Bees!

A fourth grade student from Buckskin Elementary in South Salem, thinks we could be giving back to the environment.

I hope so too.

This fifth grade student from Elizabeth Price Elementary in Cuyahoga Falls thinks a combination of sources could work very well for us.

And this fifth grader from Mulberry Elementary in Milford sees a lot of potential in the open air.

Thank you all for writing.

We hope that this episode is motivating you to do something at your school or in your community that will help improve our great planet.

If it hasn't yet.

We're excited to introduce you to this week's A-plus Award winners, the Environmental Justice League from Davis Aviation and Maritime High School in downtown Cleveland, This group of nearly 15 students started the club to help make downtown Cleveland a more vibrant and greener space for people who live, work and go to school downtown.

Over the past year, they've helped to clean up Edgewater Beach.

They've planned a pollinator garden for an underused green space on their campus, and they've even done some water quality testing in local waterways like Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga River and the Shaker Lakes.

When we caught up with them, they were in the middle of Recarbonizing their trees on their campus.

Recarbonizing is taking steps to increase the carbon based matter in the soil to help native plants grow.

Sounds pretty complicated, doesn't it?

Well, it's way simpler than you might think.

The students were using what they called a carbon lasagna to help the trees.

By eliminating plants that compete with the trees for nutrients, water, and space.

The students first started with a layer of newspaper, then put on a layer of cardboard and top it all off with fresh woodchips.

Jeremy and Jose told us that doing this will help to kill the competing grass and the paper, cardboard and dead grass would help to enrich the soil.

Sebastion, who was a master at making the cardboard fit around the tree like a puzzle, told us that it's important to keep the woodchips off the tree trunks so harmful fungus will not grow.

Mykiah told us that the pollinator garden will be an exciting project as well, because it can impact plants for hundreds of miles.

Amaryllis, who the club's faculty advisor told us has taken on a leadership role in the club and has been a great recruiter for new members.

Said that she wanted to thank Argonaut for all they've given the club and the school.

Tristan added that she's excited to be part of this club because she can really see the impact of their work can have.

Thank you for letting us help you with the trees.

And congratulations on the hard work.

We are so excited to hear about what you do next.

Speaking of animals, look at this big one behind me.

The zoo features so many animals just like this one.

But who takes care of the animals?

That's right.

It's a veterinarian.

Just like your pets at home.

A vet takes care of zoo animals when they are sick or need treatments.

Veterinarians are licensed medical professionals who diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses and injuries to animals.

To be a veterinarian, you must be good in school, especially science.

Have great communication skills.

Resilience.

And have physical stamina.

Vets must earn a bachelor's degree, usually in a science related field.

complete a four year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at an accredited school, and pass a North American veterinary licensing exam.

the average salary in the United States, is about 130,000 to $154,000 a year, depending on experience, location and animal specialty.

This week, We sat down with zoo veterinarian Dr.

Debra Barbarits She is here to answer some of your questions about her job for this week's Career Callout.

Hi, I'm Dr.

Debra Barbarits.

I'm a staff veterinarian here at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

A fifth grader from Fort Frye School in Lowell asked, why did you pick this job?

I chose to become a zoo veterinarian because it allows me to combine a couple of my favorite things, which are science, medicine, and animals.

Science was always my favorite subject in school, so I think it's really cool that I get to use science to help animals by being a veterinarian.

A fifth grader from Columbus City Schools in Columbus asked, who is your favorite animal to work with?

My favorite animal is to work with our bears.

I like them because they're really smart.

They usually love to train.

Some of the illnesses they get are very similar to dogs.

So working with them is actually pretty simple from a medical standpoint.

But then they're also these big and kind of dangerous animals.

But in reality they usually have very sweet temperaments and they love to eat, sleep and play.

And I just love that about them.

A student from Buckeye School in Medina asked, what is the most common problem with animals and their health?

And that's a very interesting question.

So it really just depends on the species.

So monkeys, we tend to see them for trauma, which is like an injury, like a bite or a scratch from another monkey.

Our seals and sea lions tend to get a lot of eye diseases.

And then there's things like our big hoof stock.

So our giraffe and our, takin or bison, and those animals tend to get, foot disease.

So they need a lot of hoof care.

A student from Cuyahoga Falls School in Cuyahoga asked, how do you find out what the animal has a problem with?

And curious.

So it's good again?

So there's a couple of steps.

First, we take a history.

And what that is, is us asking the keepers kind of what's going on with the animal.

Are they eating well?

Are they acting normal?

So that kind of gives us the first clue as to what's going on with the animal.

And then we'll do a physical exam.

And a physical exam is basically us putting our hands on the animal.

So that's usually under anesthesia or drugs to keep them asleep.

And what we'll do is look at their eyes and in their ears, we'll check their teeth, we'll listen to their heart and lungs, or feel their abdomens and move their arms and legs around to see if they can feel or see a problem there.

And then we'll do more diagnostic testing.

And what that is, is like maybe taking a blood sample and looking under a microscope or taking an X-ray or a CT to use radiology to kind of help us look inside the animal if we can't see it from the outside, and then we combine all the information we get from those answers and what we're seeing or feeling, and we decide, does that animal need medicine or does it need surgery?

And we work from there.

A fifth grader from Botkins school in Botkins asked, how do you manage big animals like elephants?

So are really big animals like our elephants or a giraffe or our rhinos can be a really challenging to work with.

So doing things like listening to their heart and lungs, or feeling their abdomen or putting them through the CT scanner might be difficult or even impossible because of their size.

So for big animals like this, we rely on a lot of cooperative training.

So our keepers and our veterinary staff work to train these animals to kind of participate in their own medical care.

We can do things like draw blood or take X-rays or give them shots awake.

So if we do have to anesthetize a large animal, we use a lot of people and specialized equipment to keep them and us safe.

Thank you, Debra, for answering our questions.

And that brings us to this week's poll question.

What is your favorite animal to visit at the zoo?

Hop or swim or swing on over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between monkeys, rhinos, elephants, tigers, giraffes, sea turtles, or any other different animal.

Last week we wanted to know your preferred mode of transportation.

Let's see those results.

28% of you said you like to drive to your destination.

Another 28% of you told us that you love flying.

25% said you grab your bike when you have places to be.

11%.

Lace up your shoes to walk everywhere.

4% of you voted for the train.

And another 4% said you take the bus pretty often.

Thank you all for voting.

It sounds like an animal, but this one sounds familiar.

Is that you barking?

Of course not.

That's an elephant.

I think it's NewsHound.

Let's check in with Newshound to see what he's up to.

Newshound I can hear you all the way over here at the zoo.

What's up?

I know, I'm sorry you couldn't come on our trip, but thanks for staying behind and keeping headquarters running.

Oh, you found a cool story for us.

Awesome.

It's about Bo the parrot here at the Cleveland Zoo.

To learn more about this feathery friend, check out the full video on our website and YouTube channel.

Thanks as always, NewsHound.

Now we're wrapping up our Earth Day show.

Right where we started.

In front of the king of the jungle.

The NewsDepth team would like to thank the Cleveland Metroparks for showing us around the nature centers, and of course, for letting us film this special episode at the Cleveland Zoo.

Teachers, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this show to share your feedback with us.

You can fill out the end of season survey linked at the bottom of this episode page.

And students, you know, we always want to hear from you as well.

And there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

See you next week.

NewsDepth is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.